Motives and incentives for importing

Mark Mazer markmazerandfm13@earthlink.net
Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:09:11 PST
>Bottom line, for me, is that a system that treats all users fairly will be 
>used by most people, and you can't drive yourself crazy trying to catch the 
>rest, any more than you can get frantic about the small percentage of 
>welfare recipients who really do refuse to work. >
>Thoughts?
>
>

Ellen,
The answer is obvious if one is not trained in classical game theory and simply observes human behavior, irrational and emotional as it can be. If person A accepts an unequal offer and rewards person B's greed, instead of cooperating, A may be prepared to suffer a loss. People like things to be fair, and if they don't perceive what is going on as being fair, they are prepared to suffer in order to punish those they see as the source of the unfairness. The phenomenon is called "altruistic punishment" by those newfangled economic behaviorists.

Mark Mazer
Hertford, North Carolina USA


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